Eket correctional chief says 46 awaiting-trial inmates cannot reach court over vehicle shortage
Chief Superintendent of Corrections Samuel Bassey says 46 awaiting-trial inmates at the Medium Security Correctional Centre in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, are unable to attend court hearings because the facility has no functional vehicle to transport them.
Bassey, the officer in charge of the centre, disclosed the problem during a visit by members of the Eket Federal Constituency Media Professionals Forum.
He said some inmates transferred from Nsit Ubium Local Government Area as far back as 2023 had not appeared in court because of the transport shortage.
That remains Bassey’s institutional account.
IDNN has not independently reconciled all 46 cases against court registers, remand warrants or individual case files.
Centre says no operational vehicle is available
Bassey said the Eket facility covers nine local government areas and 18 courts.
He said none of its vehicles was roadworthy and that officials sometimes resorted to hiring commercial minibuses from local motor parks to convey inmates to court.
Bassey described that arrangement as risky because the service must rely on private transport to move people in custody.
He said repeated requests for operational vehicles had been sent to relevant authorities without success.
Some inmates reportedly affected since 2023
Bassey said some inmates brought to the facility from Nsit Ubium as far back as 2023 had yet to appear in court because there was no vehicle to take them.
IDNN has not independently established how many scheduled hearings each inmate missed, whether every case was delayed solely by transport failure, or what role court scheduling, prosecution readiness, defence representation, remand orders or case-file status may have played.
Those distinctions matter because an awaiting-trial inmate has not been convicted.
Higher-level response not obtained
IDNN’s follow-up did not obtain an attributable response from the Nigerian Correctional Service headquarters or the Akwa Ibom State Command addressing the specific claim that 46 inmates are unable to attend court because of the vehicle shortage.
The absence of a higher-level response does not confirm every claim made by the facility officer.
It also leaves unanswered what alternative arrangements, if any, are available when a correctional centre cannot transport people in custody to court.
Access-to-justice consequence
The immediate public-interest issue is whether people held under court authority can be produced before the courts handling their cases.
A transport shortage at a correctional facility can affect court access, case progression and custodial management.
But the available evidence does not establish that the Correctional Service alone is responsible for every delay involving the 46 inmates.
A complete account would require the affected courts, prosecutors, defence counsel and correctional authorities to establish how many hearings were missed, the status of each remand order and what steps were taken when transport was unavailable.
For now, the verified publication position remains narrower:
Samuel Bassey, the officer in charge of the Eket correctional centre, says 46 awaiting-trial inmates cannot attend court because the facility lacks functional vehicles, while higher-level institutional confirmation and individual court-record reconciliation remain outstanding.